Archive for March, 2012

I did not watch Game of Thrones when it first aired because people couldn’t stop talking about how hard it would be to follow. The A.V. Club started posting two reviews of each episode, one for “newbies” and one for “experts”. Online discussion would run deep as people would pick and prod the show and it’s loyalty and/or defiance of the text. In short, the internet made Game of Thrones sound like a pain in the ass to watch. “I’ve read the book so I get it” is pretty much the worst endorsement a person can give an adapted work. If it can’t stand on it’s own without additional works outside of it’s medium propping it up, fucking throw it away. Imagine my delight and surprise when I finally watched the first episode of Game of Thrones and I Fucking Loved It.

All the worry in my face and the tension in my hands relaxed as the characters lived. They spoke to each other like human beings and were relatable too! I realized that the “experts” and hard core Game of Thrones Heads(let’s call them Throners) didn’t really want people to get into their favorite series of books. Because then they’d have to share it with the rest of the world that they hate and seal themselves off from with walls behind shelves stacked with books like Game of Thrones. Well sorry, Throners.(Not sorry.)

For a so-called hard to follow show Game of Thrones is much easier to parse than say, the first couple episodes of The Wire. If you don’t quite know who someone is on Game eventually they’ll say something and clear up any confusion but you’ll have to wait. Until then, enjoy the ambience and the ownage. To steal from Zodiac Motherfucker, I have also taken to calling Game of Thrones “Game of Owns” on twitter and it’s an apt name. Game of Thrones is heavy on the ownage. At one point a guy cuts off the head of a horse. His own horse! And that wasn’t even the craziest part of that episode.

I didn’t expect to find such relatable and interesting characters on a show like Game of Thrones. I thought they’d be a bunch of ninnies speaking Olde English and having proper rows along with tepid sword fights and laughable infidelities. INSTEAD, incest, horse decapitation, and paralyzed children. Everyone is so funny on this show. The King walks around being a hilarious asshole and having chuckle sessions with his adulterous wife about how awful their relationship is but what are you gonna do besides get drunk, amirite? These people fucking living in this crazy universe. They live there, and familiarity breeds contempt so they’re going to be jokey and spry and funny. But no one is trying to be cute so it never turns into an awkward Whedon situation. You know what I mean.

My point is that I didn’t think I would like this show but it turned out that I think it is great. Shout it from the mountains.